Lmst

#HobbyGamesRecce

I discuss sources, map/board, and units/pieces as I develop my volunteer Battle of Great Bridge walk-up #wargame to commemorate the #CulpeperMinutemen. All with the goals I outlined in my last installment to make an accessible and brief game highlighting notable historical factors.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/06/gaming-great-bridge-ii-battle-into-game.html

Calendar white board with rectangular spaces used to plot out a gridded board for the Battle of Great Bridge, with notes on units (artillery and infantry) and starting locations, movement, and hit chances, all scrawled in black dry-erase marker like the ravings of a madman....

#HobbyGamesRecce

I’m volunteering to develop and run a walk-up #wargame activity on the Battle of Great Bridge to commemorate the #CulpeperMinutemen. As I start my research and design process I note four guiding parameters to tailor the game to the event audience and focus on key historical factors.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/05/gaming-great-bridge.html

Painting depicting Billy Flora defending Great Bridge. On the left, near what looks like colonial buildings filled with barrels, are three American militia soldiers, two on one knee firing muskets at advancing British soldiers in the distance. Two of the militia men are African-American. The militia men are on a raised causeway leading to a simple wooden bridge — planks with pole railings — over a small waterway. British soldiers march over the far end of the bridge from a simple palisade wood stockade fort in the distance, with the British flag waving among their ranks.

#HobbyGamesRecce

I muse about the resurgence of #StarWars media, notably such quality entertainment as the #Andor streaming series, and reflect how roleplaying games and solid storytelling engage and inspire us in the rich galaxy far, far away....

#StarWarsRPG #WestEndGames

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/05/so-much-star-wars.html

Graphic for the Star Wars streaming series Andor, with both titles prominentlly on the left, white letters on an orange sky bakcground, with a pastiche of characters, featuring grim, bearded Andor prominently on top, with others like Senator Mon Mothma and various Rebels, with, of course, ISB Agent Dedra Meero and a smattering of small stormtroopes and TIE fighters.

#HobbyGamesRecce
I offer a cursory overview and comparison of two capital-ship miniatures games: Star Trek: Attack Wing and Star Wars: Armada. Each looks great, with different but engaging systems that immerse gamers in their respective media universes.

#StarTrek #StarWars #wargames #miniatures

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/05/attack-wing-armada.html

Game box cover for Star Wars Armada showing artwork of a space battle above a planet between Victory-class star destroyers and several smaller Rebel ships (Corellian corveets and a Nebulon-B frigate), with turbolaser fire everywhere. A plastic window int he box cover shows single models for each of the mentioned ships.

#HobbyGamesRecce
I reminisce about the distant part of my career as #editor of the Star Wars Adventure Journal at #WestEndGames where, even in rejection, I could offer encouragement to creators.

#TTRPG #StarWarsRPG #SWAJ

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/05/weg-memoirs-rejection-letters.html

A long brown warehouse front, with windows on the first and second story, sitting in a green field with a gray sky and distant green hills. No cars, no people, definitely in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania.

#HobbyGamesRecce
After years dabbling in #StarTrek I’m enjoying rediscovering it with my son, who’s been aware of it but never immersed himself in the series or films. Besides watching choice episodes we’re diving into #StarTrekAttackWing to bring Trek to life on the #wargames table.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/04/exploring-star-trek-again.html

Two game model figures of the USS Enterprise and USS Reliant standing on clear plastic rods out of a base with game stats printed on the cardboard insert. A Khan captain's card sits in front of the reliant with two 8-sided dice (red) showing a hit and critical hit on their faces near the Enterprise. Everything sits on a mottled blue and light-blue nebula starfield cloth.

#HobbyGamesRecce
Last week #DaysOfWonder announced a #CommandsAndColors style #StarWars #BattleOfHoth #boardgame and fans/gamers are buzzing. We still don’t know many details; the situation remains fluid. But I chime in with some observations, questions, and a look at various uncertainties.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/04/thoughts-on-star-wars-battle-of-hoth.html

Spring Break after-lunch #boardgame day 3. Air, Land, & Sea’s sequel Spies, Lies, & Supplies card game. I won 2 of 3 rounds; all had a great deal of uncertainty until the very end. Supply tokens add more depth to the existing gameplay. (I mentioned the game in an earlier #HobbyGamesRecce post.)

http://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-pilgrimage-with-game-diversions.html

Reddish-brown wood tabletop with cards arrayed on it: three central “theater” cards with support cards on each side representing appropriate actions to gain power in each area. Round supply chits give bonuses in some areas.

#HobbyGamesRecce
A broad knowledge of game mechanics can serve as a resource when designing our own #boardgames and #wargames. Original ideas remain key, but we shouldn’t hesitate adapting elements from other games when they, in a modified form, might improve our own games.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/04/emulation-as-inspiration-strategy.html

A jumbled pile of small, half-inch square wargame counter with teeny tiny writing, numbers, and unit outlines. Most are yellowish brown and a few are red/pink.

#HobbyGamesRecce

I look at how some #boardgames and #wargames give players an extra choice with their cards. Rather than simply choose which card in their hand to play, they must decide to use a card for the stated effect (often particularly advantageous) or discard it to take a standard action.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/04/multiple-cardplay-choices.html

An array of cards from the game Air, Land, & Sea showing numbers, card titles, and some card effects. A row of blue-tinged cards beneath the "Sea" thater card are set so the upper section with the card value and effects remain visible; the bottom card shows a WWII-style battleship rendered in color artwork. Other cards are fanned out as if in a player's hand, showing similar WWII-style illustrations and card values/effects.

#HobbyGamesRecce

I reflect on the idea of “prep is play” advocated in the #Ironsworn #Starforged roleplaying game, how it applies to most preparatory aspects of #TTRPGS, and how this game in particular makes fine-tuning setting elements to one’s own tastes an essential part of play.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/04/prep-is-play.html

Line art from an old Dungeons & Dragons rulebook showing game prep materials: graph and hex paper, a pencil, a fighter figure, and some polyhedral dice.

#HobbyGamesRecce

I made a few stops on my road trip to a funeral, visiting two fantastic #boardgame stores and picking up some small treats to divert myself...all while reflecting on a joyous, inspiring life well lived.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-pilgrimage-with-game-diversions.html

Illuminated manuscript illustration of a robed, bearded pilgrim wearing a hat and sporting a golden halo, holding a walking stick, with a satchel slung over his shoulder (with the scallop shell symbol of the Pilgrimage of Santiago de Compostela on the flap). He walks past brown hills with several trees evenly spaced around the scene.

#HobbyGamesRecce

Reflecting on the start of the #covid-19 #pandemic reminds me how our view of the past changes when we take the perspective of people living those events in the moment. #GamesForLearning can help us explore emerging situations and face future uncertainty to better connect with history.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/03/perspective-in-this-moment.html

Blurry photo of a covid-19 virus -- a gray ball with red nodules growing from it -- with a white six-sided die superimposed over the round body.

#HobbyGamesRecce

Concise, well-designed #wargames and #boardgames prove ideal #GamesForLearning. Their compact format makes them easier to learn and quick to play, with plenty of time afterward for discussion about player choices, the course of the game, rules problems, and thematic issues.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/03/short-games-multiple-plays.html

Picture of a small game board of World War I France, with blue, gray, and a single red block positioned on large hexes on the map indicating positions of forces and strengths of the French (blue) units. The printed rules text sit skewed on the left side, with a few plastic boxes of colored blocks in the upper left corner. The bottom of a manila folder standing on edge up top prevents the viewer from seeing the German player’s troop disposition.

Since 2011 I’ve blogged fairly frequently at #HobbyGamesRecce about issues, news, and interesting products in the adventure gaming hobby. You might find some reminiscences of my time at #WestEndGames. 2/3

http://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com

1950s typewriter (an Olympia, made in Hamburg) next to some blue polyhedral dice and some painted Grenadier 25mm fantasy gaming miniatures of fighting men, a sabertoothed tiger, a wingless dragon, and a giant toad.

#HobbyGamesRecce
A while back I wrote about Watch Read Play, a strategy for learning about new subjects, especially #history, by engaging with different media. Today I explore the #WW2 Battle of the River Plate in film, books, and games, notably The Hunt #boardgame I recently played with my son.

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/03/watch-read-play-battle-of-river-plate.html

Movie poster for The Battle of the River Plate, "The Tremendous Story of the Victory Over the Graf Spee," both lines splashed prominently on the poster, among the names of the stars, with the British and German commanding officers shown at opposite ends of the listing, burning German pocket battleship Graf Spee, done in a dramatic artistic painting style.

#HobbyGamesRecce
I reflect on how the cycle of estimation and action, prominent in early wargame application at the US Naval War College, affects our decision-making in games...and might even help us approach challenges in everyday life.

#Wargames #GamesForLearning

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-cycle-of-estimation-action.html

Old print showing a number of stern white men, officers, in blue naval tunics, pondering a naval chart spread out on a trestle table, some with walrus mustaches and beards. A man in a white officer’s tunic with a medal dangling from its left breast talks with another officer in the foreground; a rolled-up chart and a few books sit on a chair next to them. A huge map of the Caribbean Sea centered on Cuba hangs on the wall in the background.

In the last 24 hours views on my latest #HobbyGamesRecce post, “Write What You Know,” skyrocketed 300%. Is something wrong with Blogger or is something else going on? (I find it hard to believe folks are waking up and suddenly reading it almost a week after I posted it.)

#HobbyGamesRecce
As far as writing and game design advice goes, “Write what you know” can seem trite. But with a little reflection, it turns from a superficial maxim into a challenge to continue learning about interesting subjects to inspire your writing and games.

#TTRPGs #Wargames #GamesForLearning

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/02/write-what-you-know.html

Wooden rolltop desk and wooden swivel chair in the midst of a warm library filled with red-brown wooden shelves, numerous books, even a rolling ladder on a rail to reaach the heights, with a mission-style lantern hanging fromthe ceiling.

#HobbyGamesRecce

Upon discovering Bob Cordery sharing Joseph Morschauser’s frontier wargame rules for gridded battlefields I gathered some toys and tested the basic, elegant system...which I enjoyed despite inevitably finding some room for modifications.

#Wargames #HistoryGames

https://hobbygamesrecce.blogspot.com/2025/02/thoughts-on-morschausers-frontier-rules.html

#HobbyGamesRecce

Client Info